Overwatch Branded Truck Gets Into Accident At PAX

It sounds like whoever was driving the Overwatch truck at PAX East was not really watching where they were going, as the Soldier: 76 pickup smacked into another car.

It's not every day we get to report on traffic collisions at a video game site, so please imagine me in a full suit, reporting live from the scene of the incident where dozens of onlookers snap pictures with their phones in the background.

It's not uncommon for game publishers and studios to slap a skin tied to their game onto a vehicle and cruise it around a conference for the weekend. Heck, the Wargaming folks frequently have tanks at cons like E3, so an F650 with a Soldier: 76 theme from Overwatch isn't all that shocking.

According to the initial report, this bad boy was serving as an Uber during PAX East and, yesterday evening, got a little too close to another vehicle for comfort; by which we mean ran directly into it.

The craziest part of this whole thing is that Gearbox CEO, president and co-founder Randy Pitchford happened to witness the entire thing. While his upcoming game, Battleborn, is more of a cooperative experience, there's no denying that the shooter sported on the truck will soon be competing for your gaming dollars.

Pitchford was at least in good spirits about the whole mess, taking to Twitter with the following message:

Just left PAX East and out full house Main Theater show to see a monster truck branded with competitive game run over a civilian car.

He followed that up by stating that you can't make something like this up, and that he saw the truck as it “just smashed” into the other car. He went on to say that he offered assistance, but everything was already being taken care of and, thankfully, nobody was hurt.

That's got to be a pretty surreal end to PAX for Patchford. You walk out of a packed theater after talking about your upcoming game, Battleborn, only to witness an Uber branded after Overwatch slam into another vehicle. In his mind, we've got to believe Patchford is struggling with the possible symbolism here. Is seeing the competition literally “crash” taken as a good sign or was it, perhaps, smashing through the competition? Something to ponder.

Anyway, back to the land of games, you can look to play Overwatch on May 24, assuming this insane show of aggression hasn't scared you off from the title. Battleborn, on the other hand, will arrive in about a week, launching on May 3.